Timeline of an Embryo Donation
- Keira
- Mar 17, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Sep 29, 2020
As always, each situation and each family will be different. However, I wanted to catalogue the timeline of our donation and conception journey - in part for myself, and in part as a resource to others.
June 30th 2018 - After a few months of discussing the general concept of EDA, I joined a group on Facebook geared towards Embryo Donation matching and support. Over the next several months, I learned a lot reading about other people's experiences, and had a few conversations with potential donors that helped us hone in on what we did / didn’t want in a match. Nothing much happened - and we were in no rush.
October 5th, 2018 - I got a comment on my post in the above group from a potential donor, asking if we wanted to connect
October 14th, 2018 - We met with our potential donors for lunch. It went amazingly. I remember remarking to my spouse as we walked to the car: “Even if they don’t want to donate to us, I still want to be their friends. Is that weird?”
March 23rd, 2019 - S and I met with a lawyer for the first time to get a sense of what the process would entail. I genuinely don’t remember when we had all decided that it was a match and we would be moving forward with a donation, but by this point, we knew. We also knew that our donors were planning on having a second child, and we would be waiting until well into that pregnancy before we transferred legal ownership of the remaining embryos.
September 30th, 2019 - Our lawyer sent us the first draft of the embryo donation agreement. There was some minor tweaking from both sides over the next month before we reached a final draft everyone was happy with.
November 14th, 2019 - I visited our lawyer’s office to sign and notarize the agreement. Mine was the last set of signatures, and the embryos were officially (legally) in our name!
January 15th, 2020 - After significant back and forth with the storage facility our donors had used, all 9 embryos arrived safe and sound at our fertility clinic.
March 13th, 2020 - Day 2 of our transfer cycle (impeccably timed so that, if successful, my leave would correspond perfectly with my work schedule), and I started taking BC in preparation. It’s finally happening!
March 17th, 2020 - I received the call from our clinic that due to updated ASRM guidelines in response to Covid-19, our upcoming transfer will be postponed. I’ve been instructed to call when my period comes in April, and at that time they’ll let me know if it’s safe to proceed. Unfortunately, there are no concrete answers - just the hope that we’ll get to try again soon.
May 13th, 2020 - Good news at last! I reported the start of my cycle to my clinic, and by the end of the same day they approved us for a new FET cycle and provided a treatment calendar. If our luck holds, our embryo transfer is scheduled for late June.
June 22nd, 2020 - Almost exactly 2 years from the day we started down this road, we had our first ever embryo transfer and first ever attempt at conception. Anticipation builds as the #TWW begins.
June 28th, 2020 - Anticipation gets the best of me, and I take a home pregnancy test. The second line is faint, but unmistakable - I'm pregnant! And the journey continues...
Are you an embryo donor or recipient? How long did your donation process take?
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